Disciples  of  Christ.* 


J.  H.  GARRISON. 


The  religions  body  most  generally  desig¬ 
nated  by  this  name,  though  olten  in  the  South 
and  West  called  also  the  “Christian  Church” 
or  “Church  of  Christ,”  had  its  origin  in  the 
western  part  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  present  century,  under  the  labors 
of  Thomas  and  Alexander  Campbell.  Hence 
they  have  sometimes  been  called  Campbell- 
ites — a  name,  however,  which  they  repudiate, 
being  opposed  to  all  party  or  sectarian  names. 

Origin. — In  September,  1809,  Thomas  Camp¬ 
bell,  a  minister  in  the  Seceders’  branch  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  who  migrated  from 
North  Ireland  in  1807,  being  grieved  by  the 
bitterness  of  party  spirit  among  Christians  of 
different  denominations,  issued  a  “Declara¬ 
tion  and  Address,”  deploring  the  divided  state 
of  the  Church  and  the  evils  resulting  there¬ 
from,  and  urging  as  the  only  remedy  for  this 
state  of  things  a  complete  restoration  of 
primitive,  Apostolic  Christianity — its  faith, 
its  doctrine,  its  ordinances  and  its  life — and 
the  consequent  rejection  of  all  creeds  or  con¬ 
fessions  of  faith  which  stood  in  the  way  of 
such  return  to  the  ancient  order  of  things. 
An  association  was  formed,  called  “The  Chris¬ 
tian  Association  of  Washington”  (Pa.),  for 
the  purpose  of  promoting  the  principles  set 
forth  in  this  new  Declaration  of  Independ¬ 
ence.  About  this  time  Alexander  Campbell, 
son  of  Thomas  Campbell,  arrived  on  the  scene, 
fresh  from  his  studies  at  Glasgow  University, 
Scotland,  being  then  in  his  twenty-first  year, 
and  having  but  recently  dedicated  his  life  to 
the  ministry.  He  threw  himself  heartily  into 
the  new  movement,  and  by  his  ability,  learn¬ 
ing  and  force  of  character  soon  became  its 
recognized  leader.  It  was  not  the  intention 
of  the  Campbells  at  first  to  form  a  distinct 
religious  body,  but  to  so  leaven  the  churches 
with  the  principles  they  advocated  as  to  grad¬ 
ually  effect  the  needed  reforms.  Failing, 
however,  to  find  hospitality  or  even  tolerance 


for  their  plea  within  the  fellowship  of  any  of 
the  denominations,  they  found  themselves 
compelled,  by  the  necessities  of  the  case,  to 
assume  an  independent  position.  Accord¬ 
ingly  the  Brush  Bun  Church  was  organized 
on  the  4th  day  of  May,  1811,  being  the  first 
congregation  formed  by  the  new  movement. 

Basis  of  Union. — In  assuming  an  independ¬ 
ent  position  the  Reformers,  as  they  were  then 
called,  did  not  cease  their  plea  for  Christian 
union,  which  they  believed  it  their  special 
mission  to  promote.  Hence,  in  forming  the 
first  church  they  were  careful  not  to  include 
anything  in  the  terms  of  fellowship  which  the 
Scriptures  did  not  expressly  warrant.  A  fa¬ 
vorite  motto  at  this  time  was,  “Where  the 
Scriptures  speak,  we  speak  ;  where  the  Scrip¬ 
tures  are  silent  we  are  silent.”  Under  this 
rule,  first  enunciated  in  the  Declaration  and 
Address  of  Thomas  Campbell,  they  felt  com¬ 
pelled  to  surrender  some  tenets  and  practices 
which  they  had  hitherto  held  as  binding,  and 
to  adopt  others  which  they  had  heretofore 
disregarded.  Having,  however,  repudiated 
the  authority  of  human  creeds,  they  felt  free 
to  make  such  changes  as  would  bring  them 
into  strictest  harmony  with  the  Word  of  God 
and  enable  them  the  more  effectively  to  plead 
for  union  on  a  divine  basis.  In  yielding  the 
practice  of  infant  baptism  because  they  could 
find  no  Scriptural  authority  for  it,  and  in 
adopting  immersion  as  the  proper  form  of 
baptism,  because  the  New  Testament  seemed 
to  clearly  teach  that  such  was  the  original 
practice,  they  found  themselves  so  nearly  in 
accord  with  the  Baptists  as  to  be  received 
into  one  of  their  associations,  and,  for  a  time, 
co-operated  with  them.  But  it  soon  devel¬ 
oped  that  the  principles  of  restoration  held 
by  the  Campbells  and  their  coadjutors  were 
too  sweeping  for  a  majority  of  the  Baptists, 
and  the  relation  was  discontinued,  though 
many  Baptists  embraced  the  principles  of  the 
Disciples  and  went  with  them.  Thus  the  im¬ 
practicability  of  putting  new  wine  into  old 
bottles  was  once  more  demonstrated.  Hence¬ 
forth  new  congregations  were  formed  on  the 
simple  New  Testament  basis.  All  who  gave 


credible  evidence  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  were, 
upon  confessing  Him,  baptized  and  received 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  church,  being  asked 
only  to  take  Christ  as  their  leader  and  the 
New  Testament  as  their  guide. 

Cardinal  Principles.  —  Aside  from  the 
great  fundamental  truths  which  the  Disci¬ 
ples  of  Christ  hold  in  common  with  all  evan¬ 
gelical  Christians,  the  following  are  some  of 
their  characteristic  principles : 

1.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  intentionally 
and  constitutionally  one;  and  all  divisions 
wThich  mar  this  unity  are  contrary  to  the  will 
of  God  and  should  be  healed. 

2.  As  these  divisions  resulted  from  a  de¬ 
parture  from  the  New  Testament  Christianity, 
the  remedy  for  them  is  the  restoration  of  the 
Gospel  in  its  purity. 

3.  This  restoration  involves  the  surrender 
of  all  human  formulations  of  doctrine,  as  au¬ 
thoritative  bases  of  church  fellowship, and  the 
acceptance  of  the  Bible  alone  as  the  rule  of 
faith  and  practice,  and  the  confession  of  Jesus 
as  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  by 
Simon  Peter  (Matt.  16:  16)  as  the  creed  of 
the  Church;  the  exchange  of  all  party  names 
for  Scriptural  names,  and  the  restoration  of 
the  ordinances  to  their  original  meaning  and 
place — baptism  being  the  burial  in  water  of  a 
penitent  believer  who  has  died  to  sin,  and  the 
Lord’s  Supper  being  a  memorial  feast  to  be 
observed  each  first  day  of  the  week,  as  the 
central  act  of  worship. 

4.  The  faith  which  justifies  and  saves  has 
Christ,  not  dogma,  for  its  object,  and  is  a 
vitalizing  force  which  issues  in  practical  right¬ 
eousness  and  leads  to  a  life  of  obedience;  and 
not  an  orthodox  set  of  notions  about  God. 

The  polity  of  the  Disciples  is  congregational, 
the  local  officers  consisting  of  elders  and  dea¬ 
cons,  besides  a  minister  or  pastor,  who  may 
be  one  of  the  elders.  They  combine  in  Dis¬ 
trict,  State  and  National  organizations  for 
missionary  work,  but  have  no  general  ecclesi¬ 
astical  body  for  legislative  purposes. 

Numerical  Strength. — The  growth  of  the 
Disciples  has  been  phenomenal.  Beginning 
with  a  single  congregation  of  about  30  mem¬ 
bers  in  1811,  they  numbered  at  the  death  of 


Mr.  Campbell,  in  1866,  over  300,000.  The  latest 
statistics  show  the  number  of  churches  in  the 
United  States  to  be  9,823,  with  a  membership 
of  1,019,967 ;  number  of  Sunday-schools  7,129, 
and  the  whole  number  of  scholars  and  teach¬ 
ers,  651,110;  the  number  of  ministers,  5,256. 
Besides  these  we  have  churches  in  British 
America,  Australia,  Great  Britain,  and  a  con¬ 
siderable  membership  in  the  foreign  mission 
field,  making  the  total  number  of  churches  in 
all  lands,  10,397,  with  a  membership  of  1,060- 
307.  The  total  number  of  Sunday-schools  in 
all  lands  is  7,554,  and  the  total  number  of 
scholars  and  teachers,  681,100,  and  5,594  minis¬ 
ters^ 

The  total  valuation  of  church  property  is 
placed  at  $17,368,442.  During  the  last  mis¬ 
sionary  year  (ending  October  1st,  1896)  the 
churches  gave  for  self-support,  $4,284,000 ;  for 
general  benevolence,  $170,000;  for  foreign 
missions  through  our  various  agencies,  $125,- 
117 ;  for  home  missions,  State,  District  and 
National,  $300,846;  total  amount  for  missions, 
home  and  foreign,  $425,963.  These  missionary 
moneys  are  raised  under  the  auspices  of  our 
three  national  organizations,  The  American 
Christian  Missionary  Society,  The  Foreign 
Christian  Missionary  Society  and  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions. 

Institutions  of  Learning. — Among  their 
principal  schools  are  Bethany  College,  Beth¬ 
any,  West  Virginia;  Kentucky  University, 
Lexington,  Ky. ;  Butler  University,  Irvington, 
Ind. ;  Drake  University,  Des  Moines,  la.;  Hi¬ 
ram  College,  Hiram,  O. ;  Eureka  College,  Eu¬ 
reka,  Ill. ;  Christian  University,  Canton,  Mo. 
There  are,  besides,  many  small  colleges.  All 
these  make  the  Bible  a  text-book. 

The  principal  publishing  houses  are,  Chris¬ 
tian  Publishing  Co.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  and  the 
Standard  Publishing  Co.,  Cincinnati,  O.  The 
Disciples  publish  about  a  dozen  religious 
weeklies,  and  one  quarterly. 

•[Article  in  Johnson’s  Universal  Encyclopedia, 
'New  Edition,  Vol.  II. 


Published  by  the  Christian  Woman’s  Board  of 
Missions,  160  N.  Delaware  St.,  Indianapolis,  Ind., 
April,  1897.  1  cent  each,  10  cents  per  dozen. 


